Education Committee members could have avoided all their problems with getting stuck in traffic jams if they had availed of the latest technology and appeared in the Senate Chamber in virtual form. Then a virtual Sammy could have crossed swords with a virtual Caitriona. Sounds far fetched? Well this week our enterprising Enterprise Minister Nigel Dodds attended a conference on ‘New Ways to Create Revenue Online’ as a Second Life avatar.
Virtual Dodds
I don't know what he said, but I like to imagine that his Second Life department is the Starship Enterprise Trade and Investment. "Beam me up, Doddsy!"
When is a walkout not a walk out? Some rumbustious scenes at the Education Committee this morning when Caitriona Ruane cut her appearance dead when her allotted hour expired. She pointed out that some MLAs had been late turning up, whilst she had got up at 6.30 to ensure she began giving evidence on time. But not all the Committee members were happy. After she left the Senate Chamber they grumbled on camera about what they regarded as a discourtesy. The Committee chair, Sammy Wilson, reckoned the fact that the minister had taken her first 27 minutes in making an opening statement amounted to an abuse of the hearing. Other MLAs chimed in before Sinn Fein's Paul Butler sprang to the defence accusing Sammy Wilson of taking a partisan approach to his chairmanship.
Safe to say, after this somewhat confrontational performance, relations between the Minister and the Committee cannot be said to have improved.
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